Out of sheer curiosity I decided to check back in on Negative XP and found out he has not one
but two albums since the last time I looked. I put on the latest one Bullet Hell (2024) and it was
slightly surprising. The last one I listened to was Gamer (2020), which was a disappointing mess
due to XP's attempt to start cleaning up his sound a bit, but still writing super generic pop punk
songs, but this time he focused more on improving the sound quality instead of halfway decent
songwriting. At the time, it was a complete nightmare because personally, XP's strongest suit
was making pop punk with the production quality to match Ariel Pink's early Hypnagogic Pop
records. By Varsity (2019), he figured out how to make a pretty decent record that doesn't
solely rely on some bad lead guitar ideas and a "pop punk vibe" to get through making a song.
His records under the negative xp name at least had something interesting to say about them,
up until Gamer. Which was so bad, he must have realized that he needed to ditch the pop punk
sound, which Bullet Hell does. His vocals are slightly more vulnerable and clearly mixed, and the
guitars have a more defined tone. While he's still writing whiny and depressing songs, this time
they're done in a more concise way.








Highlights
1. Sports
2. F Minus
3. All-American
4. After the Game
5. Champion